How was the photo of the animal world taken?

Special article introduction-how are these shots (animal world) made?

In Diary of the Emperor Penguin, more than 7,000 emperor penguins formed a phalanx to resist the snowstorm from all over the sky. In the dark blue, sharks besieged young whales, and thrilling blue bubbles surged in the sea. In "Birds Fly", birds pass over snow-capped mountains and wasteland again and again with extremely elegant posture. In the microscopic world, two transparent snails make love tearfully. In Underwater Impression, Nightcrawler in the deep sea floats leisurely on the coral reef, giving off bright light ... These shots often make people ask the same question, "How did you shoot it?"

What kind of lens, photographer and environment are behind these breathtaking scenes? In fact, these questions themselves contain many wonderful stories.

The BBC has a documentary "Animal Camera", which once introduced how scientists observe and record animals in the sky-installing a lipstick-sized miniature camera on a sculpture, which can shoot it soaring in the air from the perspective of sculpture. The peeping lens can go deep into the hive and see the bees' every move clearly. Thermal camera can track and shoot the whereabouts of warm-blooded animals such as elephants and lions in the dark by detecting the heat emitted by animals. The camera installed in the high-tech remote control model can go deep into the lions and shoot the life-and-death struggle of fierce animals or affectionate parent-child shots. Slow-motion camera can slow down the moving speed of animals by 1000 times, take the action of 1 second as 15 minutes, and record the details that can't be observed by naked eyes. Diving robots can dive thousands of meters into the deep sea and photograph the wonders of the ocean. ...

It is interesting for documentary photographers to try these new technologies. In Diary of the Emperor Penguin, photographer Jerome Mei Sen designed a scooter with a camera, which can slide around the penguins on the ice to shoot. In order to film penguins foraging on the bottom of the sea, they tied the camera to a big post, dived under the ice, and then dived to the bottom of the sea with penguins to shoot. Jacques perrin tried his best to film the migration of birds. In order to track these birds, they used five or six different planes, including traditional gliders, hot air balloons, helicopters, delta wings and remote-controlled planes with cameras. With the help of these aircraft, the camera followed the migrating birds, or directly mixed with the birds, all the way from the South Pole to the North Pole, from the sea to the snow-capped mountains, from glaciers to deserts, from Xanadu to swamps, and took many extremely shocking aerial flight shots.

More amazing than Diary of the Emperor Penguin and bird migration is Micro World. This documentary, featuring various insects, has always been regarded as the most wonderful one in the series "Heaven, Earth and Man" by the famous French documentary director jacques perrin. In fact, jacques perrin is just a producer. The real directors and photographers are a pair of French biologists Claude Nullide and Marie Perez Nu. Tired of closed academic circles, they turned to movies to share their "discoveries and feelings in the insect world".

In this film, the grass in the garden in front of Claude's house was photographed as a virgin forest mixed with dragons and snakes. Ants drink water by a pool of water like cows, snails mate and linger, two beetles fight like gladiators, pheasants attack ant tribes, and bodies are everywhere, and the army of caterpillars March forward like train carriages. In particular, the birth of a mosquito is like Venus being born in the foam of the ocean. Even today, the most advanced special effects technology in Hollywood can't achieve that amazing and magnificent visual effect. So, you don't need to look for any aliens or inner senses in science fiction. There is an exciting Jurassic Park in your backyard.

In order to make this microscopic world into a movie, the Claudes spent two years developing various new photography techniques and equipment. For example, a camera as light as a thin wing is installed on a remote-controlled airplane model, which can fly with dragonflies. A motion-controlled camera system, in which the movement of the lens is directly controlled by a computer, can shoot high-definition images from multiple angles without destroying the smooth poetry of the lens. This kind of equipment is extremely expensive and has only been used in some sci-fi blockbusters in Hollywood, such as Jurassic Park. In addition, they also made a lot of modifications to the camera at that time, and the depth of field was also modified, achieving the effect of super macro shooting. Time-lapse photography is used in many places in the film to achieve the effect of slow photography-caterpillars move on branches, raindrops explode, and herbivores gradually devour helpless prey. These are all amazing.

Unlike scientists, documentary directors and photographers always like to look for analogies between animal and human behavior. Whether it's Micro World, Migration of Birds, Deep Blue or Diary of an Emperor Penguin, we can look back at ourselves from animals and find that the similarities with them are far beyond our imagination, thus giving birth to more sympathy. Photographers also like to play up some dramatic elements in their own documentaries, such as the penguin mother who lost her young in Diary of the Emperor Penguin, the bird with broken wings besieged by a group of crabs on the beach in Migration of Birds, and the dung ball pushed by the dung beetle in Micro World. These details, coupled with quick editing, make this biological documentary very interesting, which is more attractive than the rumor that Disney and the Arctic lemmings committed suicide by jumping off a cliff together.

Search for the filming tidbits of these biological documentaries, and there will be many interesting discoveries. Claude specifically mentioned in the interview that he found a lot of body body double when he was filming Micro World. Some insects are really natural actors, such as ladybugs flying away from weeds. It always takes off after a turn, and its posture is particularly elegant.

In contrast, the photographer of Diaries of the Emperor Penguin may be a little embarrassed.

"We get up at 5: 30 every morning, spend more than an hour preparing photographic equipment, go out dressed as penguins, and carry a guy of 130 kilograms on his back. As soon as we arrive at the Emperor Penguin Camp, two little guys, whom we call Bobby and Lex, will come and greet us. They pecked at our clothes and walked around in front of the camera, making beautiful sounds, like singing. Although there are others around, they are only close to us. One day we took a nap at noon and woke up to find them sleeping beside us. Later, we discovered that they used the wrong feelings on us because they didn't have a' lover'! " ■

Interview with the photographer Jerome Mei Sen of Diaries of the Emperor Penguin.

Sanlian Life Weekly: How can we get so close?

Jerome Mei Sen: Emperor penguins are not afraid of humans because there are so few people here. They have never been caught by humans. At first, we can only let them do their own things from a distance, then we go two feet, two feet forward, and finally we are only three or four feet away from them, so that they can get used to and accept our existence. After a week or two, we can live with them, and they almost "ignore" our existence. Two of them are very close to us and are always in front of the camera, which makes it impossible for us to shoot other penguins. In addition, we have to shoot from the height of penguins. They are afraid of what appears from above, so they have been in prison for almost a year.

Sanlian Life Weekly: In the wildlife documentary, we have always been curious about how you captured the thrilling shots of those animals going straight to the camera. What is your secret?

Jerome Mei Sen: Patience. A photographer's life is to wait patiently for opportunities. You must know the animals you are shooting while waiting, learn to predict their reactions and wait and see what happens. You need a little luck, too Seeing thousands of penguins at once is not always a good thing.

Sanlian Life Weekly: The scene of sea lions eating penguins in one bite is terrible. How did you shoot it?

Jerome Mei Sen: We tied the camera to a big pole, filmed under the ice, and then dived into the sea with penguins. Maybe my profile looks like a seal sea lion, which almost scares them.

Sanlian Life Weekly: Are there any special requirements for photographic equipment?

Jerome Mei Sen: The performance must be strong enough to work normally at a low temperature of minus 40 degrees Celsius, and if there is a problem, it can be fixed at any time. Before I left, I went to Grenoble and adon camera factory to order the cameras we needed.

Sanlian Life Weekly: What is the most difficult thing in the filming process?

Jerome Mei Sen: When shooting in the polar regions, the biggest difficulty is the cold. You must make sure that you and your equipment are warm enough. You must try to keep the camera stable when you shoot in the gale with speed 100 miles per hour. In addition, we shot too much material, 140 hours of material, and finally only cut it for 80 minutes, so we must constantly recall what we shot before and how we shot it, such as how the characters got into the picture. However, the Antarctic light is the dream of every photographer, and it changes all the time. Incredibly, pure blue was rediscovered, reflected in the color on the ice, and pink came out of nowhere.

Sanlian Life Weekly: How cold is it to shoot in Antarctica?

Jerome Mei Sen: Once, we filmed in a place far away from our residence (French Antarctic research station). The wind was very strong, and the temperature soon dropped to MINUS 22 degrees Celsius. We insisted on 1 1 hour. By the time the rescue team arrived, I was completely frozen, my right hand was completely unconscious and my face was severely frostbitten. It seems that the South Pole is reminding me, "Remember, you are just a passer-by".

I hope my answer is helpful to you _